Chapter 1: Introduction

This book examines discourses of migration in Nigeria and Zimbabwe with a particular focus on how citizens in both countries imagine and narrate experiences of migration. For the purpose of this book, we perceive migration in the same view as Kok (1999, p. 20) who defines the concept in general terms as the crossing of a spatial boundary by one or more persons involved in a change of residence. In essence, migration involves the departure from one’s place of residence to another. In this context, we discuss how conversations around migration are constructed vis-à-vis the realities of migrancy in contemporary Nigeria and Zimbabwe.